


NEW YORK :&o*l) Ww 
STATE SCHOOLS OF AGRICULTURE 



Alfred 
Canton 
Cobleskill 



Delhi 

Farmingdale 

Morrisville 




New York State has 215,000 farms 



THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 
ALBANY :: :: :: :: 1920 ' 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS: 

MAR31192T* 1 

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INTRODUCTION 



Agriculture is the oldest business in the world. It is an occu- 
pation centering around a permanent home. Throughout all 
history the farmers of the land have furnished the foundation 
stock of all nations and have been the basis of that land-owning, 
home-loving people who give to any nation its love of country 
and its patriotism. There is born in every people the desire for 
the ownership of land and the yearning for a permanent home 
upon the land. 

The farmer has always occupied a position of importance as 
a conservative and sane element of American civilization. He 
has fed cities not only with food and raw material but has 
furnished the young men and the young women who have become 
our leaders in the professions, in industry, in commerce and in 
government. The American farmer never has occupied in 
society the place of the European peasant but instead has always 



been the land-owner with mental, physical and moral fitness 
above the average of the commonwealth. 

Yet the importance of the farmer in our past history and in 
our present society is probably nowhere near so great as will be 
his importance in the future state. In the words of Dr Liberty 
Hyde Bailey, " The past generation was known by the dominance 
of the corporate and capitalistic interests. The present genera- 
tion is known by the emergence of labor organizations. The next 
generation is to belong to the farmer." In any contest between 
capital and labor farmers are the balance wheel which stabilizes 
society. That the farmer of the future shall have an efficient 
training in practical and scientific agriculture and in those things 
which make for the best citizenship is of paramount importance 
not only to the individual farmer but to the whole American 
people. In recognition of this great public responsibility the State 
of New York has established, as one of the agencies for pro- 
moting agricultural education below college grade, the state- 
supported and state-controlled schools of agriculture. 




Interest in sheep raising has recently revived in New York State 






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AGRICULTURE AS A BUSINESS 

Agriculture with its 6,000,000 farms and approximately 
30,000,000 dwellers is by far the most important vocation of 
our Nation. As an industry agriculture offers wide variety in 
the types which one may choose to follow. If a person likes 
horticulture, he may feel that it is no insignificant business, since 
the fruits of the orchard are annually worth $140,000,000. 
Cotton may be king but the insignificant hen has made the poultry 




Improved machinery is rapidly supplanting hand labor 

industry yield each year more than $200,000,000. One may 
be proud to belong to the great mass of dairy farmers who have 
made their business add yearly to the worth of the Nation over 
$600,000,000 or to the great group of crop farmers who have 
produced over $5,500,000,000 annually. 

New York State with over 1 0,000,000 people furnishes more 
than one-tenth of the entire population of the Nation as customers 
for its 215,000 farmers. No other business is so sure of a con- 
tinued demand for its products. 



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A state school barn 



The farm, unlike most other 
businesses, furnishes a home 
and a large part of the family 
maintenance. This is a big 
factor in deciding upon one's 
life work. It makes the seem- 
ing modest income of the 
farmer equivalent to a much 
larger city salary. The farm not only furnishes a home but it 
also furnishes a job. The city man even if he is fortunate enough 
to own a home is in a sorry way if he does not have a job. 
Unfortunately, many a city employee at middle age is obliged 
to look forward to the dreaded day when he will be replaced 
by a young man. The farmer with his live stock and broad acres 
about him has a job which promises him livelihood and con- 
tentment in his old age. Successful business takes a long look 
ahead. The prospects of the business of farming are bright. 

As the farmer advances from the hoe age to the machine age 
it becomes necessary for him to study agriculture as a business, 
for agriculture is a business as complex and needing as much 
mental training as manufacturing and as much hand skill as 
mechanics. Either in school or by long expensive experience 
the man who is to be the successful farmer of the future must 
learn how to produce at the lowest cost, sell at the highest profit 
and invest his proceeds as a skilled business man. This involves 
mastery of the details of control of plant and animal growth, a 
knowledge of markets and distribution and a familiarity with the 
principles of farm management and business cooperation. These 
things can be learned effect- 
ively and economically in the 
state schools of agriculture 
whose business it is to train 
young men and young women 
to become efficient members of 
the country community. 




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OPPORTUNITIES IN AGRICULTURE 

The opportunities presented to the young man or woman today 
in agriculture are largely controlled by the old economic law of 
supply and demand. The supply of trained men and women is 
not keeping pace with the demand, a fact which emphasizes the 
value of the special school training. 

From a study of the positions filled by the graduates of one 
of the oldest agricultural vocational schools of the State, the 
following results were obtained: 37 per cent, by far the largest 
number, are general farmers ; 1 3 per cent are dairymen operating 
their own farms and doing much to establish better standards and 
methods in their business; third in order come farm superin- 
tendents and managers; following closely we find herdsmen, fruit 
and truck farmers. Milk chemists and testers and cattle breeders 
have attracted almost equal numbers. The remainder of the list 
includes men engaged as teachers of agriculture, poultry farmers, 
milk plant superintendents, milk dealers, cattle dealers, landscape 
gardeners and nurserymen. 

To the man who is already on the farm the results speak fo; 
themselves and the opportunities are clear. The special agri- 
cultural schools are finding a larger number of students each 
year drawn directly from farm homes. The additional instruc- 
tion in agriculture either as a short course or for the full course 
which they can secure without interrupting seriously the chief 
farming operations of the spring, summer and early fall, is prov- 
ing its value in the increased improvement and profits of their 
business. 




Students judging dairy cattle 
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There are excellent opportunities in fruit growing in New York State 

For those who are considering agricultural vocations and who 
are not fully informed as to the attractive and varied opportunities 
presented by our great State of New York, a more definite and 
localized discussion will perhaps prove of value. 

The dairy industry of the State ranks first in importance, not 
only from the standpoint of high-grade milk production so neces- 
sary for the very existence of our great cities but also in terms of 
the value of dairy products including butter, cheese, whole milk 
and the various manufactured forms of milk. New York State 
possesses some of the finest dairy herds in the world and the 
prices paid at the great cattle sales for pure-bred stock prove that 
careful breeding is also a profitable source of income. 

Poultry prices have reached an entirely new high-water mark 
during the last few years. With express trains of eggs being 
shipped into the State from California during the winter months 
there is a wonderful opportunity for the poultry specialists in 
New York State at the very threshold of the great markets. 
Better care of farm flocks, rigorous culling and scientific breeding 
for utility, along with careful grading and packing of the products 
should add millions to the profits of the farmers who have been 
trained to do these things. 



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Along the Ontario shore and in the lower Hudson river valley 
there are two wonderful fruit belts. For productiveness and 
quality these sections have no rivals, and with the great cities 
of the State and in fact of the whole North Atlantic seaboard 
as their markets, the possibilities are unequalled. With more 
effective organization and higher standards of marketing this 
branch of the agricultural business is destined to become a still 
greater industry. 







Students learning to prune trees 

Around New York City truck farming flourishes and this 
locality provides some of the best markets in the world. Long 
Island products are famous, the yields enormous and while usually 
such intensive farming represents a large capital, investment and 
high production costs, the returns maintain a high average. 

This leads us to the general farmer whose business is the back- 
bone of the agricultural industry of the State. With ample 
acres to feed his stock, using the manure to maintain his soil, 
increasing his crop yields year by year, making wise investments 
in labor-saving machinery — no matter what stress or strain may 
come to the nation his living and a well-earned profit are assured. 

For such business opportunities the state schools of agriculture 
are providing every training today. 



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LIFE ON THE FARM 




Life in the open country has 
a strong appeal. Living is 
practically assured to the 
farmer regardless of general 
business depressions or panics. 
His investment in land and 
buildings is comparatively safe. 
He is sure of enough to eat and to wear. Aside from economic 
considerations, however, farm life has many other advantages. 
The farmer is his own boss in a stricter sense than is a worker 
or manager in most other occupations. In most cases he is the 
sole owner of the enterprise. The extent of his possessions and 
the fact that he produces much of his sustenance gives him an 
exceptional feeling of independence. 

Farm work, though pressing at times, is not monotonous 
because of the great variety of things to be done. Seasonal work 
through seed time and harvest, work with different machines and 
the care of animals are constantly bringing stimulating problems 
to the farmer's mind. The thoughtful farmer experiences joy in 
manipulating the forces of nature to productive ends. 

The welfare of American homes is of vital importance to the 
American people. The home fulfils its highest functions and 




A state school of agriculture showing some of the buildings and a 
portion of the farm 



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reaches its finest culmination as a training camp of boys and 
girls. On the farm we have the fields, the woods, the streams at 
our door, fresh air in plenty, the best of food and everywhere a 
wholesome contact with nature and with living and growing 
things. 

Opportunity for development of responsibility and initiative 
is essential to the training of the child. Many such opportunities 
are found on the farm in the projects which boys and girls under- 
take. It may be the raising of a calf, growing a garden or a 
crop, caring for a flock of chickens, building a hand sled or 
trapping a rabbit which taxes the child's ingenuity and resource- 
fulness. 

Even the things which are the joy of city people are available 
also to people of the country. Telephones, rural mail delivery, 
automobiles, good roads make the farm no longer an isolated 
place. At the same time there exists in the country that generous 
neighborhood spirit which is so quick to respond in case of trouble 
or misfortune. 

The state schools of agriculture are located in the open country. 
The faculties are composed of men who have been bred on 
the farm and who have the farmers' viewpoint. The instruc- 
tion embraces the farm home and the welfare of the country 
community. 




An extensive poultry plant is operated at each school 



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PREPARATION FOR SUCCESSFUL FARMING 




Boys are trained to do repair work 
on the farm 



Few persons question the 
necessity for thorough prepara- 
tion if the highest measure of 
success is to be attained in the 
field of agriculture. The good 
farmer is both a skilled work- 
man and a careful student, a 
man of business and a scientist. 
No other calling in life requires 
so wide a range of qualities and 
talents or so high an average standard of proficiency as does 
twentieth century agriculture. 

Preparation for farming should take two forms, actual 
experience and practice on the farm and adequate school training. 
In this way achievement is attained in other lines of endeavor 
and agriculture is no exception to the general rule. 

Every community boasts its successful farmers, men who are 
self-made and who have won their present positions through years 
of toil and effort. There is no substitute for work and for that 
discipline of mind and body which comes in no other way. But 
these same men who have traveled the hard road of experience 
are the first to state that they could have been more successful 
younger in life and with greater ease if the opportunity for sup- 
plementary school training had been open to them. 

The best investment that 
men can make is an investment 
in education. Once really ac- 
quired it can not be lost or 
stolen. It yields constantly in- 
creasing dividends from year to 
year in terms of money and in 
the higher terms of wider use- 
fulness and finer service. Men 
never regret time spent in ac- 



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Making a germination test of seed 
corn 



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quiring an education. They regret only that which they could 
not have or which they shunned when the opportunity was at 
their door. 

Education enables one to capitalize the accumulated experience 
of other men and other times. Life is too short for each to begin 
at the beginning and work out for himself what other men have 
already established. All human progress is conditioned upon the 
principle that each generation builds upon the accomplishments 
of preceding generations, applying the lessons of the past to the 
problems of its own time. This is the essence of education. It 
is the only justification which agricultural education or education 
for any purpose requires. 




Operating incubators 

Actual figures to establish the value of school training for 
farmers are not lacking. Records from Tompkins county, New 
York, have shown that on the average a high school education 
for farmers is worth over district school training the annual return 
on an investment of $7000 in Victory bonds. The same records 
establish that education beyond the high school, as business 
school, normal school or college, etc., is worth for farming pur- 



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poses the annual income on an additional investment of $5000 
in the same securities. In Schoharie county, New York, in 1916, 
farmers with more than a common school education earned an 
average annual income 66 per cent greater than farmers who 
had gone no further than district school. In Otsego county in 
1915 the difference was 82 per cent. It takes a very short time 
to pay for additional education according to these figures, and 
the increased earning power continues throughout life. 

Agricultural education is so young that few figures are avail- 
able on its specific value for farming purposes. Sufficient con- 
crete examples of its value are found in every community, how- 
ever, to indicate that the farmer of the future will possess not 
only good general school training but training in agriculture as 
well. It surely is reasonable to assume that if education which 
possesses no direct application or adaptation to agriculture is 
worth while if one desires to farm, then training designed to 
meet the needs of country life will pay immeasurably better. 

Education is the hope of the world. It is the hope of agri- 
culture. Experience and practice are indispensable, training in 
school is invaluable, but the man who goes highest and farthest 
in the open country is he who has combined the two. 

This is the purpose of the state schools of agriculture, to pro- 
vide sound educational training at the schools themselves and 
sound practice on the school farms and on other successful farms. 




Eliminating the boarder cow by means of the Babcock test 
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NEW YORK STATE HAS 215,000 FARMS 

Each of the state schools of agriculture owns and operates a 
farm. This is used for growing the crops and fruits adapted to 
the region and for maintaining the school herd. It is also used 
for class field trips as a source of laboratory material and to 
provide practical training in farm operations. 

DAIRIES 

New York State has 1,500,000 cows. The prosperity of 
New York State agriculture has always depended largely upon 
its herds and flocks. Today the State is a recognized center for 
the breeding of pure-bred and high-grade dairy cattle. 

The state schools of agriculture maintain excellent herds of 
the leading dairy breeds. These herds provide material for 
classes in stock judging, feeding, breeding, and live stock manage- 
ment. The milk is used for practice in testing milk and cream, 
in the handling of market milk and in the making of butter and 
cheese. 

POULTRY 

New York State has 10,679,000 fowls and produces 
67,689,000 dozen eggs annually. The State is next door to 
the greatest poultry markets of the Nation. The state schools 
of agriculture by means of their flocks, buildings and equipment 
provide a thorough training in this field. Students care for the 
fowls, incubate the eggs, and rear the young chicks. 

FRUIT 

New York State has 24,989,000 fruit trees. New York 
orchards and vineyards are one of the glories of the Empire 
State. The state schools offer instruction in fruit growing that 
is commensurate with the importance of the industry. Work in 
vegetable gardening is also offered at each school. 

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SUPERVISED PRACTICE ON PRACTICAL FARMS 

Each student is in school from about October 1st until April 

1 st. From April 1 st until October 1 st the student is required to 

work on a practical farm doing regular farm work. The farm 

must be approved by the school. During this summer work the 

student is under the supervision of the school faculty. He keeps 

daily records of the farm opera- 
tions, makes a study of the 
methods employed, keeps a 
record of market conditions and 
makes special studies which 
are planned so as to correlate 
in the best possible manner the 
skills and methods of farm 
work under practical conditions 
with the technical or scientific 

work of the classroom and laboratory. 

Through close contact with farmers in all parts of the State 

the schools are able to place students with the more successful 

farmers who are employing the 

best methods and conducting 

their business in a scientific and 

practical manner. Students 

who come from farms spend 

one summer on the home farm 

and if possible spend at least 

one summer on a farm in a 

different region and with a 

different type of farming. 

Many students are able in these summer months to earn enough 

money to pay their entire expenses through the next winter at 

school. 




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GENERAL INFORMATION 

Courses of Study 

Regular course of three years with opportunity to secure 
training in 

General agriculture 

Animal husbandry and dairying 

Fruit growing and vegetable gardening 

Poultry husbandry 

Six months of each year is spent at school. 

Six months during growing season is spent on good farms 
under school supervision. 

Entrance Requirements 

Age — not less than 1 6 years. 

Education — completion of the eighth grade. 

Credit is given for high school work which duplicates any of 
the required work of the school. 

The average student at entrance is 19 years of age and has 
had two and one-half years of high school work. 

Expenses 

Tuition is free. 

The cost of books should not exceed $10 a term. 

Board costs from $5 to $8 a week. 

Rooms cost from $1 to $2 a week. 

A student should be able to earn enough money while on the 
six months' supervised practice during the summer to pay his 
expenses for the following six months in school. 

A short course of 8 to 12 weeks is given each winter for those 
who can not remain longer, with no entrance requirements except 
a minimum age of 1 6 years and ability to read and write. 

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For more detailed information in regard to any school, apply 
directly to school for catalog. 

A ddr esses 

Director, New York State School of Agriculture, Alfred, N. Y. 

Director, New York State School of Agriculture, Canton, N. Y. 

Director, New York State School of Agriculture, Cobleskill, 
N. Y. 

Director, New York State School of Agriculture, Delhi, N. Y. 

Director, State Institute of Applied Agriculture, Farmingdale, 
N. Y. 

Director, New York State School of Agriculture, Morrisville, 

N. Y. 





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School athletics are under competent 
supervision 



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